Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere limited edition soundtrack release:

THE RAT RACE

Music Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein

The Rat Race began life in 1949 as a Broadway play by Garson Kanin. Eleven years later, Paramount Pictures brought The Rat Race to the screen, starring Debbie Reynolds as a down-on-her-luck model and dancer, and Tony Curtis as a new to New York aspiring musician. The great supporting cast included Jack Oakie, Kay Medford, Norman Fell, and a very young Don Rickles. As with the Broadway play, several notable musicians were also in the cast – reprising his Broadway role was Joe Bushkin, and Gerry Mulligan and Sam Butera also appeared. The film was directed by Robert Mulligan (it was his second film, after Fear Strikes Out – also for Paramount), and the screenplay was by Kanin. Curtis and Reynolds deliver star performances – it’s one of Reynolds’ best performances, and the large supporting cast is wonderful (especially Rickles, who is really effective as a sleazeball). The photography of Robert Burks (at that time, Alfred Hitchcock’s regular cameraman) is stunning and Mulligan’s direction is terrific – he would, of course, go on to direct To Kill a Mockingbird just three years later.

As much of a leading character as those played by Curtis and Reynolds is the incredibly dynamic score by Elmer Bernstein. Right from the get-go, his electric, jazzy, and spectacular theme grabs you and never lets go. That theme recurs throughout the score – pulsing with the teeming life of the city, with wailing brass and insistent rhythms. Some cues keep the big-band jazzy feeling, while others are mournful and tender, as the story requires. It is, simply put, one of Bernstein’s best. Nobody did this kind of score better than Elmer Bernstein – it’s just filled with memorable melodies and stunningly gorgeous music. 1960 was a great year for Bernstein, what with The Rat Race and then one of his all-time masterpieces, The Magnificent Seven. The theme from The Rat Race enjoyed some popularity and radio play when it was recorded by cast member Sam Butera and the Witnesses.

This is the world premiere release of The Rat Race original soundtrack recording. There was an LP release of the Sam Butera version of the theme – an album called “Sam Butera and the Witnesses play the Music from The Rat Race,” but it was just the theme; the rest of the album was filled with standards. The original tapes, housed in Paramount’s vaults, were in excellent condition and we present Bernstein’s score in its entirety in stereo. In the bonus section we’ve included some mono source cues (all by Bernstein) and a couple of demos.

The Rat Race is limited to 1200 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the first week of November – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

Now, how about that? Last night I watched a special screening of "Sweet Smell of Success" with the pulsating Bernstein score we know and love (and again Tony Curtis!) at the Athens International Film Festival and just a few hours later this announcement hits my computer screen!

I'm impressed by the excellent audio quality just from the samples alone. When that main title kicked in, it sounded like I was right there in the orchestra. And what a main title! Some of Bernstein's dramatic underscore may leave me a little cold at times, but he was a master of melody, and his main title here is just on a whole other level.

I know this score by reputation only. It's going to be all new to me when my copy arrives. This is what I call a “safe bet.” I have yet to be disappointed by any of Kritzerland's Elmer Bernstein releases, musically or sonically, and I have them all (Drango has quickly become a personal favorite — what a deep, probing score).

Samples are indeed fabulous. What is the playtime of the album versus the bonus tracks?

The score proper in stereo runs about thirty-three minutes - it's everything Bernstein wrote. And the bonus cues, all Elmer, run about twenty minutes - the source cues are mono, but the demo and alternate are stereo.